Requested Letter

This month, we’ve got three love letter requests that we know will hit you at the core. We feel extremely blessed to be able to reach out to three amazing people with our words of encouragement and Love Letter Bundles this October. Please help us make this the biggest + brightest mail delivery we’ve ever had.

so what is a love letter bundle?

Each month, we send out a “call for love letters” (just like this one) for an unsuspecting receiver (or in this case, receivers) in need of a little handwritten goodness. You will then have until the end of the month to send over a card or letter to the More Love Letters PO Box. We’ll bundle the letters and mail them all together to a lucky, lucky mailbox with an explanation note from MoreLoveLetters.com on top.

It’s simple. It takes 5 minutes. And really, what’s better than a monthly pinning of “heart to page” for someone who truly needs some love and syllables? So gather your friends, your students, your coworkers or church group, and take on the monthly mission together! New to letter writing? Get started here!

The following letter requests were requested by close friends + family of the recipients:

meet Kate

“Kate has been crying almost every day for the last month. A recent breakup left Kate realizing she had entangled her life with a guy who was never right for her. When the two broke up, her life was changed completely. Now she is alone again after so many years, crumbling apart and not knowing who to turn to. Kate needs to know that there are strangers out there who believe in her and want to see her whole again. She needs to know that there is life, and so much of it, after a bad breakup.“

meet Jason

“Jason is my big brother. A veteran of the Marines, he served the USA and was deployed to Afghanistan twice and Iraq once. He has been trying to go through school since he got out of the military and has quietly fought PTSD , which has gotten worse in recent weeks. He has a big heart, and has always been involved in helping other veterans, disadvantaged, and disabled. Please help a Veteran feel special and see the sunshine in a dark period of his life!”

meet Deborah

“Deborah was diagnosed with colon cancer in 2010. Since then she has gone through chemo and radiation with astounding strength. She was cleared, cancer free, after less than a year, and was ready to move on with her life. Since then, she has had numerous complications as a result of her surgeries and radiation treatments. She constantly says, ” I thought cancer was the hard part. They told me to beat cancer, and I did it. No one warned me about this part. No one is telling me how I am supposed to beat this.” She is low on hope, low on inspiration, and losing belief in the greatness of life and the human spirit. She needs to remain positive in order to continue to fight. She knows nothing about this blog, or what is done for those in need, but I know she would appreciate it more than anyone will ever truly understand. This could be exactly what she needs to regain the amazing strength I know is inside her. Deborah has so much left to live for, but could really use a few kind hearted third party people to express that to her. She needs strength to continue to fight. These letters have the capability to save her life.”

All Love Letters can be sent to:

October’s Bundles

PO Box 2061

North Haven, CT 06473

Letters can sent all in one envelope or individually, whichever you prefer. We’ve got little elves to sort them all out. Write for one, two or all three!

Please postmark all love letters by the last day in October. Please & Thanks.FYI: We ALWAYS appreciate blog posts to raise awareness for these letter requests! Get creative. Pull out your glitter, write down your favorite quotes and REMEMBER: We all write love letters differently, own your love letter writing style…we don’t need someone else’s love letter, we need yours.We also ask that you stay POSITIVE. UPBEAT. & SUPPORTIVE in your letters. Storytelling is A-OK but let’s not dwell on the negative, folks.

pin your face off.

We cannot help but wonder, who are the beautiful faces that write these love letters every month?!
This month, we challenge you to take a photo with your love letters before you mail them off and email it to PS@moreloveletters, post it on our Facebook, or tag it as #moreloveletters on Twitter & Instagram. We will be creating a big ol’ pinboard to share of our awesome letter writers and we don’t want to leave you out!

You are totally our Juliets in all of this and we could not do it without you…. Speaking of Juliet, leave the mush to her and keep the love letters in the “friend zone.”

Think you want to take on another love letter request? Just send us an email to request@moreloveletters.com and we will hook you up with another letter that could use your skills. We appreciate all volunteer writers.

Oh, and P.P.S. For safety measures, we will not display last names of love letter recipients or addresses. All snail mail will be managed through the central More Love Letters PO Box. We also ask that you do not include contact information within your love letters. Keep the letters clean, no crude or inappropriate messaging will be forwarded to recipients. Please do not include monetary gifts.

Disclaimer:

More Love Letters reserves the right to remove any love letter(s) not aligned with the mission and/or message of the organization.

More Love Letters is not responsible for the reactions of recipients upon receiving Bundles. All responsibility falls on the requester of the love letters.

LOVE US ENOUGH TO SHARE US?

This past April, More Love Letters bundled up over 100 love letters to send to the women of the Anchal Project. Check out the progress here on our blog. Thank you times ONE MILLION for all who supported us in donations & letters. We will continue to update on the shipping of the letters through our Facebook and Twitter pages so be sure to follow along…

May has certainly proved to us just how capable she is at playing Tug O’ War with our postage stamps… We adore the mamas we honor on Mother’s Day but we salute and respect the soldiers, past & present, who serve around the world. AND SO… this month we’re taking on both.

We hope you’ll pull out the stationery this May and help us out in bundling up love letters to send overseas to Brandon and to fill the arms of his mother, Sharon.

Brandon’s Story:

Brandon is currently in Basic Training for the Army at a very demanding base and company. It is very hard to keep faith and stay motivated and any mail and words of encouragement mean the world to him and the the rest of the soldiers there. These soldiers go through things that are very physically and emotionally hard so any words of encouragement that he can share with his fellow soldiers would mean the world to them!

Sharon’s Story:

Sharon’s only child Brandon left for the Army recently. it has been very difficult for her to have an empty house. she knows the army will make him a better person but it is hard to have almost no communication besides a letter once a week if she is lucky! it has been very hard to have her only child so far away. she could really used some words of encouragement and support from anyone!

We had originally planned to send a massive amount of love, strength and support to Sharon’s mailbox. Her only child, Brandon, was just sent off to serve and we figured she could use a day brightener during this month devoted to the Mamas.

And then we realized it… Why write love letters to JUST Sharon when we could shower Brandon with support too! For his bravery. For his courage. For his will to make this world a better & safer place. Yes… we agree… we are SO capable of both.

So double up your stationery and Let’s. Get. Going. Troops!

FYI: We ALWAYS appreciate blog posts to raise awareness for these letter requests! Get creative. Pull out your glitter, write down your favorite quotes and REMEMBER: We all write love letters differently, own your love letter writing style…we don’t need someone else’s love letter, we need yours. We also ask that you stay POSITIVE. UPBEAT. & SUPPORTIVE in your letters. Storytelling is A-OK but let’s not dwell on the negative, folks.

Please mail all love letters to any of the following:

Sharon’s Bundle PO Box 2061, North Haven, CT 06473

or

Brandon’s Bundle PO Box 2061, North Haven, CT 06473

&… if you package them together…

Brandon & Sharon’s Bundle PO Box 2061, North Haven, CT 06473

Please postmark your letter(s) by May 24, 2012 to be included in the May Bundles.
(Pst…. we HIGHLY encourage tweet pics & instagrams to @moreloveletters of you with your love letters!)

More Love Letters One-Liners for the Month

Want to write even more love letters with your campus group or closest friends? Consider adopting a Love Letter Bundle today! More details here.

Think you + More Love Letters are a Cinderella shoe fit? More Love Letters has just opened up the doors to partnering with other blogs, organizations and stationery crews. If you think your company or blog might be a fit for our site, check out our partnership page today.

Think you’ve got what it takes to steer your county or your campus in Love Letter Writing? Respond to this email and tell us a bit about yourself…We are on the brink of charging up the More Love Letters Campus & County Chapters and we’d love to keep you in mind!

Looking for some letter writing in June? More Love Letters will be hosting its VERY FIRST Love Letter Pinning Party in NYC on the night of June 11th, 2012. Mark your calendars and keep your eyes peeled for the invite (coming later this month!)

Kellie asked me to write her a love letter for the post and I could think of no better letter (look, I am NOT JUST a love letter writer but a poet too!) than the Great Ache Letter… a letter that I have given to my closest friends and loved ones during hours when they needed it most. And now, Kellie has it in her possession…

And you can have it too… because I adore you just that much… but probably would adore you even more if you wrote love letters and left them around your hometown… hint, hint.

So here you go, friends. Without further introduction, the Great Ache Letter.

*This letter works best when printed out, folded up, and kept in a safe space for the days when you need it most.

Kellie:

In 23 years, I have learned this best: Every girl, no matter old or young, needs a pair of comfortable walking shoes in her purse, a trusted umbrella in her hand, a few good sisters by her side and a Great Ache Letter in her pocket.

A Great Ache Letter to counter the fact that we have terribly unreliable any warning. Unreliable hearts that leave us in puddles of tears in the middle of a courtyard or the second a certain song comes tumbling through the car speakers.

A Great Ache Letters exists for those Broken Hearts, those Bad Days and those Tragedies that take us by the elbow. My mother first handed me mine when I was seventeen; she saw my heart falling to pieces by the pool.“ Keep this by you and read it good,” she said. “ And when you are older wiser and better versed in Hard Times and Hardships, script your own Great Ache Letter from the jumble of glassy lessons learned within and pass it on to someone who needs it most.”

This is your Great Ache Letter.

Print it. Fold it square. Tuck it safely. Unearth it from a wallet or a cluttered desk drawer on days where the World dresses herself in clunky costume jewelry: Cruel. Plastic Pearls of Loneliness

Take out this Great Ache Letter on those kinds of days and know yourself loved. Loved by fingertips. Loved by the toes. Loved through the hard spots. Loved and taken into clasped hands by a bedside each night, your named whispered into prayers that beg you’ll be kept safe and you’ll grow stronger as the days pass and the Great Ache wears away. Great Ache wears away.

Let’s review the things I don’t care about right here, in this Great Ache Letter:

That we’ve never met. That I don’t know the way to your house and could not pin point it on a map or draw it upon a napkin. That we’ve never shared a playground or an ice cream cone or even a chat room.

None of these silly things matter in a Great Ache Letter. All that matters is that One Great Acher can reach out to another Great Acher and say out loud,“I care about you… no matter where you are or what you do… no matter where you go or where you have been before this.”

And how does One Great Acher find the strength and courage to write a letter to another Great Acher? Simple. They have been there before They know the way life can so effortlessly sock the air straight from your lungs. They know how it feels to think you’ll never gain the strength it requires to pick yourself up again. And, of course, they know that nothing– absolutely nothing– feels more glorious than that moment when you discover your own two feet again and you find yourself standing.

Learn the truth in all the hardship: You will be o.k. again. Whole again Ready again. All you have is grey on beautiful can be painted from grey. Better we learn early that it is o.k. to curl into a ball and let the pillowcase take our tears for a while. It’s o.k. to be sucked dry of inspiration, to lift our hands up in exasperation and ask for a saving grace or just a little help.

Hear me when I say it: if Loneliness needs to visit then waste no time in pulling up its chair. If Sadness wants to dance today, get on those ballet shoes. If Tire and Exhaustion are demanding that they sit beside you on the train, let one take the window seat and the other the aisle.

They’ll be leaving soon. They’ll make their way out. They won’t stay forever, though it may seem that way right now. But you, you just keep on going, knowing that all you are doing is absolutely enough. You are doing just fine. You are doing just fine.

And one day soon, you’ll stand. From One Great Acher to another, I’ve been there. I’ve felt it. And I can promise you: you’ll stand.

Love,

Hannah Katy

Please, oh PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE share your letter writing skills with us… we want YOU to be a guest submitter in the weeks ahead! Have an idea for a letter brewing already? Shoot us an email at hannah@moreloveletters.com.

LOVE US ENOUGH TO SHARE US?

Hopefully our handwritten love can handle the bright lights

Left: 2:07pm, on its way to NYC

We’ve all been there.

A new city. A fresh start. A chance to flip a page and start all over. Possibility and the world at our very heels.

You can practically smell it in the air these days. The end of August, as she rolls into September with leaves in her hair, is known for the fresh start that sits upon the tops of suitcases being shuffled into dorm rooms and notebooks opening for the very first time.

This letter is heading off today to reach the brand new mailbox of the one who requested it in advance last month: a college freshman starting Chapter One in New York City. Oh, how we adore christening a mailbox!

We’re wishing him well as he takes his first big bite out of the Big Apple and also sending along some of our best advice we’ve gathered from living in NYC.

One of our personal favs:

Nailing down coffee dates (even if it is just with laptop & books) at:

Do you know someone in your life who could use a love letter?

Maybe he is starting college as well, or maybe she is beginning her senior year? Let us know! We would love to send a handwritten letter their way.

Please send all requests to request@moreloveletters.com or send your own note to someone just starting off college to PO Box 2061, North Haven CT, 06473. We will make sure it reaches the right pair of hands.